A day out in Henley

This week we were lucky enough to be invited by fst to attend the Henley VIP day, an exclusive travel industry day at Henley Royal Regatta and bring Doris along to show her off to a new audience.
Laura pulled off a master class in logistical organisation in the 2 days prior to the event, bouncing between Loughborough, London, Portsmouth and Christchurch to ensure that we were able to get the boat up to Henley on Wednesday morning. Huge thanks have to go to our equipment sponsors Lewmar for lending us a trailer and to the guys at Rossiters who got up early on Wednesday to show us how to get an ocean rowing boat off the water, onto a trailer and secured properly for a trip up the motorway. With Laura at the wheel we set off through Christchurch, getting a lot of attention from people on their way to work and off on our first towing adventure.

Once Doris was installed outside the very swanky marquee we were invited in to talk to all the attendees of the day about our Pacific row. Huge thanks to fst who not only let us talk peoples ears off all day while feeding and watering us, but also kindly donated the takings from their regatta accumulator competition to our challenge. The interest we had from everyone we spoke to was an inspiration in itself and it was really great to share our story so far with more people. There was even time to watch a rowing race or two and get a bit jealous of everyone racing.

In the enclosure

Showing off Doris

Some rowing!

At the end of a successful day of networking we hitched up the trailer and headed back to Christchurch. Another long day finished – we’re certainly getting plenty of sleep deprivation practice at the moment but I for one am loving the craziness of being part of the Coxless Crew.

Enjoying being by the river

Looking smart in our Crew Clothing kit

Finally another huge thank you to:
fst http://www.fstthegroup.com/ for inviting us for a great day in Henley.
Lewmar http://www.lewmar.com/ for the loan of the trailer.
Rossiters http://www.rossiteryachts.co.uk/ for all their help manoeuvring the boat onto the trailer.
We couldn’t have done it without all of you!